Online stockbroker and fund supermarket Interactive Investor (www.iii.co.uk) has this week opened up AIM stocks to its spread betting and CFD derivatives traders. AIM stocks now account for 40% of all equity trades through Interactive Investor. This new market will appeal to these traders looking for new opportunities with the FTSE relatively flat, and also to traders looking for extra flexibility to maximise returns and cushion losses by offsetting their equity holdings.
Mike McCudden, Head of Derivatives at Interactive Investor, said:
“More and more investors looking for an alternative to the FTSE 100 are realising that AIM stocks gives them greater opportunities. We’ve seen a huge increase over the last couple of years in derivatives traders seeking more flexibility to execute long or short hedging strategies. Trading AIM stocks via derivatives gives you just that flexibility.
“This is a real advantage to traders in oil and commodities stocks, especially those with as much as 30-40% of their portfolio invested in these sectors. The volatility in these markets looks set to continue in the medium term. Investors trading AIM stocks can use this to their advantage by hedging bets on their prices so that if they go down, their loss on the equity side will, to an extent, be offset.”
There are 75 AIM stocks available to derivative traders via Interactive Investor including Rockhopper Exploration, Majestic Wine and Numis Corporation. More stocks will be added over the next few weeks.
Mike McCudden added:
“CFDs and spread betting have distinct advantages for traders. There is the extra leverage and flexibility already mentioned, but there are also sizeable tax advantages as stamp duty is not charged on transactions.”
For a list of all the AIM stocks currently available to spread betting and CFD derivatives traders via Interactive Investor, please click here.
